Pornographic Irony – It Runs Deep

Pornography, as an industry, isn’t famous for it’s protocol. Pushing boundaries, maybe, dirty tactics (excuse the pun), most certainly. There is still no concrete law requiring performers to get regularly STI tested – although, we ought to point out that most of them do.

Deep Throat has got to be one of the porn industry’s most famous outputs, right? The film was about as big budget, high-production as you’d get for a movie of the genre in the ’70s. It was also extremely incendiary. With all the Granny-porn and felching that is bandied around today, that might sound absurd. But at the time, the content of Deep Throat was considered extreme.

Absurdly based around a woman -played by Linda Lovelace – who discovers her clitoris to be located in her throat, with no choice (obviously) but to perform deep throat on a series of men in order to achieve climax herself, it seems fairly laughable. But the film was banned in the UK for ten years, and wasn’t allowed to be shown in many states in the US too.

Controversy surrounding the film didn’t end there. Following it’s a stint in movie theatres, articles began to circulate about suspicious box office figures. Famous film critic Robert Ebert drew attention to the fact that many of the cinemas that screened the film were mob-connected with, allegedly, inflated box office numbers as a way of laundering the profits of drug and prostitution enterprises.

So, now the tables have turned. The company that own the 1971 film – Arrow Productions Ltd – are suing producers of the new Hollywood blockbuster Lovelace, which details the life of the pornography actress, on account of the fact that clips of Deep Throat are shown throughout the movie.

Ironically, for a film that fought it’s own ban, the owners of Deep Throat, have filed a $10 million copyright action suit, which aims to prevent the distribution and marketing of Lovelace.

The film’s release, which was scheduled for August 23, is now in jeopardy. Millennium Films Inc and United Entertainment Inc, responsible for Lovelace, now have a battle on their hands to ensure that they are allowed to promote and to account for any of the profits and revenues from the film.